Chapter Text
As he stood now and watched her calmness as she walked to the rippling sands above the Molduga, he began to understand. This amethyst eyed sheikah who he had thought he was dragging along with him- her perplexing demeanor about everything, the little fear she showed even in his demonic powered presence, it made sense.
After she settled on a half sunken boulder, undisturbed by the circling giant beneath the sand, the beast let out a cry like none he had heard in a hundred years. It vibrated the earth and shook him to his core, yet the pale figure in the center of the danger just closed her eyes and bowed her head in what could have been mistaken as a prayer. The sheikahs eyes found his after, beckoning him closer with merely a glance over a porcelain shoulder that would surely burn in the harsh desert as the sun began to rise past early morning.
And, without doubt, Ganon crossed through the path of danger. As the sun climbed higher in the sky, he could see it. His own towering form cast a looming shadow, but her lithe form's darkness drew far further out than his own. Her peace- her gentleness- her love-
Ganon found himself beside her before he could finish his thought, his attention stolen away by gemstone eyes. They were solemn and glossy in a way that made her appear more ethereal than any living being should, and he almost missed the words she was saying. Somehow the noise rang clear over the rumbling ground- delicate as is was.
"She's dying" was all she said. It took the former king a moment to connect what she was saying to their situation.
"The Molduga? How do you know?" He shifted, subtle, but he felt as if his companion noticed anyways- even while her eyes were on the golden mounds of waving sand. It made him... uncomfortable.
"The way we all know... The way you know when you send your son to war, when a calf is born in the middle of winter, when you pluck a flower from its stem." Ganon remained quiet, visions of his past sins flashing before him. He couldn't remember far enough back to when he cared as he struck another being down- or if he had ever cared about taking another man or woman's life. It was strange to feel so distant from ones own self, and yet here he was- feeling as if his spirit was watching everything unfold instead of experiencing it himself.
"She is the last of her kind, you know." And he did. He remembered the attack he had planned, how his actions had wiped out much of their population many years ago. Still- to think that this was the last...
"Not just the Molduga... She is the last leviathan, and even then- she is so small compared to the creatures that were here before her...." He wanted to say something, anything, but he hesitated. "Faster and faster, Hyrule is becoming too small for its people and spirits. Even your own people have started settling outside of the desert, more and more young Vai are growing up never setting foot in the protected city. The hylians are spread all over, each passing year they become less connected without the Royal family, the Kingdom. I fear the only thing holding the Zora and Gorons to their history will be their environment, and even then- that might change."
And that's what this has all been about, hasn't it? Change. The cycle had been broken, for now, and for once Ganon had to live through the change and the consequences of his own actions. Things had never been this way before- his soul no longer possessed by the demon that captured him in his greed lifetimes ago. Suddenly, the desert felt so small- yet overwhelming at the same time. The Gerudo man finally found his voice again.
"Why did we meet?"
"Because you need to change, just like he did- like she did." As if on que- the light dragon- what remained of princess Zelda- graced the skies above the mountains. She shone with an impossible luster as she wound and twisted through the sky in the same dance she had performed since her sacrifice hundreds of years ago.
"You need to find a way to make peace with this, I think that's why you've found me." A sinking feeling found it's way and twisted in his gut at her words.
"You, you are death." An airy laugh tingled in his ears in response. He almost flinched away like a child as a slim pale hand reached up to hold onto his forearm. She was cool as her skin rested against him, the weight of her almost felt like nothing- despite the fact he knew she was a physical being.
"I am not death. I can just..." Ganon held his breath without realizing. "I can feel and see things differently than most people in this age. I don't think I am death, but who is to know? I remember a time when you thought you were a god." This pulls a bittersweet chuckle from deep in his chest, it is short- but it lightens the mood.
"I felt like one..." Ganon pauses, looking down at the Vai gently holding herself against his arm. "If you are not death, then I hope she is at least as loving and gentle as you." And, for the first time since they met, his companion looks at him with wide purple eyes full of deepness and wonder- as if he'd just told a child of the ancient dragons for the first time. He's afraid for a moment that it's made his heart stop- but its thundering soon resumes in his chest.
"Thank you," is all she says to him. The words are so simple, but so meaningful and sincere. Ganon can't place the emotions it stirs up, and the two of them gaze forward as the Molduga breeches the sand in a display he'd never appreciated as beautiful until now.